Muhammad’s successors are called Caliphs. Like Muhammad they combined religious, political, and military authority. As you have learned, Muhammad united the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. The early caliphs led these tribes out of the Arabian Peninsula. Within a decade of Muhammad’s death, they had conquered Egypt and most of Southwestern Asia. The area ruled by the caliphs, called the caliphate, continued to grow in the decades that followed. The caliphate quickly became the largest empire that had existed until then.

The early conquests included the area you learned about in the previous section: the ancient Jewish homeland, which Jews call the Land of Israel. As you may recall, this area became part of the Roman Empire as the province of Judea and the Romans renamed it Palestine following Jewish revolts to regain independence. In the centuries that followed, this province remained part of the Eastern Roman Empire (which scholars call the Byzantine Empire) except for a brief period when it was under Persian rule. When the Arabs established their empire, they included this area as a district of the province of Greater Syria.

This empire covered an enormous area. It completely absorbed the Persian Empire and almost all of the Byzantine Empire’s southern provinces. Over the next hundred plus years, the Arab empire continued to grow dramatically.

This map shows three periods of Arab and Muslim conquests. The white borders on the map represent modern countries. How many modern countries in the conquered areas can you name?

By the mid-eighth century, caliphs ruled an enormous empire that stretched from Central Asia to Spain. This led to two major demographic shifts. First, through migrations and intermarriage much of Southwest Asia and North Africa became predominantly Arab.

Second, Islam spread throughout the empire. Idolaters were given the choice of death or conversion, but “People of the Book” were allowed to keep their religion. The term “People of the Book” originally referred to Jews and Christians because they have a sacred text that teaches there is only one God. These People of the Book, and later other religious minorities, were given dhimmi status.

Dhimmis had a combination of legal restrictions and legal protections that you will read about on the next page. Over time, though they had the right to keep their faith, most people in the areas taken during the Arab conquests converted to Islam. There were various reasons for this including the facts that Muslim missionaries were active and eloquent, non-Muslims faced restrictions that Muslims did not face, and Muslims paid fewer taxes.

As you have learned, Muslim leaders distinguished between idolaters (who were forced to convert or die) and People of the Book (who were allowed to keep their faith). Protected religious minorities were called dhimmis. Over time, dhimmi status was given to other religious groups such as Zoroastrians and Hindus. Dhimmis were usually tolerated and treated better than religious minorities in Europe during the Middle Ages.

However, tolerance in the medieval world was qualitatively different than tolerance today. Usually, dhimmi life, property, and freedom of religion were protected, but their legal and social rights were restricted. For example, they had to pay a special tax and faced various other restrictions such as limitations on where they could worship.

According to tradition, the Pact of Umar was written by Calip Umar II in the early 700s. The Pact of Umar appears to be a peace treaty offered to the Christians of Syria by the caliph. Some scholars have questioned the historicity of the document. Regardless, it was a foundational text for the legal status of religious minorities in Muslim ruled lands.

At the beginning of this topic, you learned that Muhammad’s successors are called caliphs. Until the year 750, a single caliph ruled all the lands the Muslim Arab armies conquered. In 750, a new dynasty (ruling family), the Abbasids, overthrew the previous dynasty, the Umayyads. However, an Umayyad prince survived and fled to the area that is today Spain. He established a separate kingdom there. From this point on, there would be multiple Muslim kingdoms and rulers.

The Abbasid Empire continued to fragment in the years that followed. Separate dynasties were established in lands that were once united under a single Caliph. Some were ruled by Arabs. Some were ruled by other ethnic groups who had converted to Islam. The various kingdoms had differences but were also united by their Islamic heritage. They are often referred to collectively as the Muslim world.

Their shared Islamic heritage linked different Muslim kingdoms in more ways than just religious belief. For example, there were significant similarities in their artwork and architecture. One of the most notable examples of this is the use of the arabesque. The arabesque is a way of decorating paintings, objects, and buildings with sinuous lines or floral patterns. The image above is from the walls of a 10th century Arab Muslim palace outside of Córdoba, Spain. The arabesque style built on styles used by earlier cultures and was also used by later non-Muslim cultures. However, the style is especially prominent in Islamic art. What do you think the origin of the word arabesque might be?

QUIZ

1. What is a caliph? A prophet A member of a religious minority A successor of Muhammad that combines political, religious, and military authority A region in the Arab empire

2. Which of the following statements about dhimmis is correct? They had complete equality. They could be forced to convert. All non-Muslims were considered dhimmis. They were generally treated better than religious minorities in Europe during the Middle Ages.

3. Which of the following statements about the Muslim world in the Middle Ages is correct? It was always ruled by a single caliph. It consisted of various kingdoms that had similarities with and differences from each other. It was located entirely within Southwest Asia. It was ruled by Arabs.